Still, not all market players agree on Facebook’s future. Bank of America Merrill Lynch in early April removed the internet company from its US1 list of best investment ideas and cut its target price twice in March, citing the Federal Trade Commission’s probe into its data practices. It maintained its buy rating for Facebook, but expressed concern over the “risk of civil penalties on data privacy violations” that could take years to resolve, according to a client note.
More broadly, tech stocks face an uncertain future in the face of potential regulation and market volatility, and since February the market has seen dominant players like Amazon, Tesla and Facebook lose their leads at different points. But Pepper is confident that the industry giants will perform well in the long run.
“Over 10 and 20 years, Amazon, Facebook, these kinds of stocks are going to continue to do extremely well,” she said. Previous years would be a positive indicator — between 2013 and 2017, Facebook’s revenue grew from $7.87 billion to $40.7 billion, ranking first in social media company revenues. And Amazon’s stock price has grown a whopping 415 percent from 2013 to today.
“Put those technology ETFs (exchange-traded funds) or stocks in your children’s college accounts and your retirement accounts and go to sleep,” Pepper said. “Because, yes there will be volatility, but if you look at the rate of change and the direction over the last five, 10 years, it’s up. This is where all the profit is migrating to.”
Pepper owns Facebook and Amazon stock both professionally and personally.
—CNBC’s Tae Kim contributed to this report.
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